Manon Update

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and prayers for Manon since my last post. It's been amazing to see the response of God's people all over the world (thank God for the internet hey haha). Manon started chemotherapy this week and so far it seems to have gone well. I'm looking to go and see him this coming weekend, so hopefully I'll have a bit of a better idea of whats going on then. Although, my knowledge of Japanese medical terminology is quite limited haha so we'll see how we go.

In other news, we had a 6.4 earthquake the other day! It was about 5am and it woke me up, my whole room was shaking and some of my books fell off their shelf I discovered later that day. I'd never felt an earthquake before (at least not that I could remember - there was one in Newcastle in 1989 but I was too young to remember) so it was quite an experience. My poor housemate, George, much to his disappointment, slept through the whole thing though.

And to all those contemplating ever coming to Japan, or Nagoya more specifically, during the month of August, I have this to say to you: DON'T DO IT! The weather here is pretty crazy. Its hot (over 30C everyday easily), but thats not the worst part. Its the humidity the kicks you in the guts and make you sweat before you've even gotten out of bed in the morning. Most days the lowest the humidity gets is about 65%, but more often than not its in the 70-80s mark and then jumps into the 90's over night which makes sleeping that bit harder. So, in summary, if you want to visit Japan, do it in a month that is not August haha.

Kick in the guts

It is with sadness, shock and a deep sense of injustice that I write this. This past week, Manon Moriyama, the 5 year old son of Takeshi, one of the Crusade staff here in Nagoya, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia.
Manon was taken in for a routine vaccination when the doctor thought the colour in his face wasn't right and he noticed some bruises on his legs. Tests were done and the doctor had them go to the bigger hospital for more tests. They went to Red Cross Hospital where it was confirmed that Manon has leukemia.
What makes this even harder is that our Nagoya team leader, Seiji, had his son pass away from leukemia 5 years ago in the same hospital. So this is a huge challenge for him too, with lots of those emotions coming back to him during this time.
So I'm asking you to pray - we need a miracle from God. Pray for Takeshi and his family as they go through such a tough battle. Pray for Seiji as he leads the team through this tough time. Pray for the rest of the staff team as they come to terms with the battle we're all facing as a result. And please pray for healing for Manon, that he would be completely healed of this disease.

Lessons Learned

Apologies for the delay in writing on here, its been a hectic few weeks and I'm only just finding time to rest and get my thoughts together. The semester is now over and this past week has been day after day of evaluation and reflection on the year so far. I've learnt a lot about myself, how I process things, my character, faults and failures, which has obviously got me thinking about how I fit in the ministry here and where my future lies. I won't go into details on my thought processes so far, because they're not completely solidified, but I would definitely appreciate prayer as this is a big time of thinking. Its very hard to think logically and clearly when you're in the middle of a rush-rush-rush semester of activity, so this will be a key time in figuring out what my future holds.

I was listening to a sermon the other day from a talk series at the annual student conference for Student Life in Australia - it was from 2006, the year I missed due to my big deam American holiday, so I hadn't heard these talks before. They were focused on Romans 1:16 and the verses around it, and one why Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel. One of the talks really hit home for me. John (the speaker) was talking about how we are so well trained in how to reap the harvest (ie. share the Gospel and bring them to Christ), but we are so incredibly lacking in knowing how to sow (plant seeds of the Gospel that will eventually come to fruition in someone accepting Christ). He then went on to explain that, as Christians, we need to develop a ministry-mindset to life. Basically, what that means is that we recognise that God is in control of the circumstances of our lives, and so we need to look at every circumstance and ask ourselves how God can use it to glorify Himself and bring others closer to Him. I kind of knew that this is how I should approach life, but had never had it so clearly explained before. It challenged my thinking no end! A verse that came to mind was Colossians 3:17: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." EVERYTHING I do should be done in the name of Jesus, and for His glory. EVERYTHING! That is challenging stuff!

The Empire Strikes Back

Just got a mail from another staff saying that he heard Gaidai was closed tomorrow due to some sort of flu infection, but not swine flu - some new kind of flu apparently. There goes another day of ministry - this is getting a little annoying!

In other news, we're having a spiritual birthday party tomorrow night to celebrate those who've come to know Christ this semester. It should be a really good night of fellowship and celebration. Be praying for all of us involved in making it happen, that everything would go smoothly.

'The Vine' and more

Yesterday was a great day! It started with a great service at Church, which included a particularly challenging sermon. We were looking at the first half of Romans 6, where Paul talks about the fact that our sin nature has died and in Christ we have a new nature that can say no to sin. Matt, the preacher, used a particularly good illustration to explain why this doesn't always seem to ring true in our lives. He compared the sin nature to a vine (not to be confused with the vine of John 15) that he had growing on his Church building back in the US. One of the jobs of keeping the yard clean was to rip down these vines that grew up the side of the building. They were quite strong though and it was hard to rip them off the wall, so what you had to do was cut it off at the roots and leave it for a while to die and then after waiting many weeks, the vine would be weak enough to rip off.
Likewise, our sin can be like that. We have died to sin, the old body was crucified with Christ - it has been cut off at the root. But its still there, but slowly losing its grip on our life. We need to continue to trust in the power of Christ, that is given us when we choose to follow Him, rather than our own strength, to rip that vine off the wall. And one day, the vine will drop off altogether, when we meet Christ face to face.

The day then continued in its awesome ways, as a group of us went to the beach. It took us an hour to get there (unlike the 5 minutes or so it used to take in Sydney), but it was well worth it. I hadn't seen the ocean since I arrived in Japan, so it was refreshing to swim, to feel the sand between my toes, enjoy the sea breeze. We had a lot of fun just hanging out.
When we left, we went to Nagoya station and got some Cold Stone (or Cold Rock for my Australian readers) and the girls working there sung for us as they made the ice cream. Then we all got a photo with them. They all went out back to get their cameras to get a photo for themselves too haha. All in all a fun day!

And I thought it couldn't get better

After seeing 4 girls come to Christ in a matter of days, I was incredibly excited and amazed at what God was doing. But He wasn't done yet, and frankly, that shouldn't have surprised me. Yesterday we had 2 more girls choose to follow Jesus.
During lunch time Cecilia and Pam met up with a first year girl, Kumiko, who is friends with the Mai who came to Christ earlier in the week, because Kumiko wanted to find out more about Jesus. And she decided during lunch that she wanted to follow Him.
Then last night at our International Night, Cecilia got to share, along with Mika (a student at Nagoya Gakuin University - NGU), with Mika's friend Kyoko after we had heard a message about how Jesus had changed Jody's life. Kyoko invited Jesus into her life too.

Praise God for new members of God's family!

I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God

... over one sinner who repents" - Luke 15:10

Wow, what a week! Talk about God's Spirit moving!
Here's the short version:
since Friday 4 girls at Gaidai have come to know Jesus as their Saviour!

Here's the longer version:
On Friday at lunch, Pam and Kahori (one of the student leaders) were talking to a girl Kahori went to high school with, Miki and during the conversation they were able to share the Gospel with her and she received Christ. Then straight after that, Pam went to do a Christianity Explained course (a short 6 lesson overview of the life of Jesus) with a first year Gaidai girl named Mayuka who we'd met only the week before, when she said she had an interest in the Bible. After doing CE, Mayuka decided she wanted to follow Jesus.
Then on Monday, Cecilia was meeting up with some girls for lunch with Pam and Kahori, and after lunch one of them (Mai) stayed back to hang out and they shared really openly about their struggles, which led to Cecilia being able to share how she came to know Jesus. Mai started to cry as it really impacted her and Cecilia and Pam were able to share with her the joy of knowing Jesus and she decided to become a Christian too.
Then just an hour ago, Kahori and Saki (another Gaidai Christian girl) did CE with a student named Ayaka, and she prayed to receive Christ as well.

God is working and its exciting to be a part of it!